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The politics of transformation: mass media and the Northern Ireland peace process

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The Politics of Transformation:
Mass Media and the Northern Ireland Peace Process
by
Maria Armoudian
A Dissertation Presented to the
Faculty of the USC Graduate School
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS)
May 2013
Copyright 2013 Maria Armoudian

The Politics of Transformation: Mass Media and the Northern Ireland Peace Process explores the interrelationship between mass media framing, political leadership, and group psychology in transforming entrenched violent conflict into peaceful relationships. It examined the construction of peace in two parallel and intertwined realms—the rhetorical and the real. In order to measure this relationship, I conducted interviews, created two original databases, devised a system by which to measure media frames and intercommunity relations, and statistically compared frames across publications, over time and to the measures of intercommunity relations. In the interviews political leaders and journalists revealed the factors that created their respective frames: Although some of the findings, such as the forces of journalistic structure and norms were expected, others—such as journalists’ personal experiences, judgments, and emotions—were somewhat more surprising. By quantifying frames from five media outlets, the degree to which each of the forces, such as political leadership, group identity, ideology, and journalism’s norms and structures, became more evident. Further, these measurements allow scholars to see how these two realms—the real and the rhetorical—change over time and how intertwined they really are. Some media outlets’ framing trajectories corresponded very closely with measures of real intercommunity relations, such as violent conflict or peacemaking, suggesting a close relationship between these two variables.

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i
The Politics of Transformation:
Mass Media and the Northern Ireland Peace Process
by
Maria Armoudian
A Dissertation Presented to the
Faculty of the USC Graduate School
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS)
May 2013
Copyright 2013 Maria Armoudian